Fr. BB, 190 candles and Room 13

Such good fortune that I can say I have an old friend who just turned 95 and had a birthday party. But alas and aieee! that I failed to attend it.

Terribly sorry, Fr. Benigno a.k.a. Fr. Benabarre a.k.a. Fr. Bena a.k.a. Fr. BB. I should have been there last Sunday, May 23rd, when you blew out all the candles on a couple of cakes, each with No. 95. That’s times two, so maybe you’re really on your 190th year as an alien in Planet Mendiola — albeit all too familiar and beloved by all of us Bedans of benign, benevolent memories.   

The good father was our grade school principal in San Beda College nearly six decades ago — in the pristine 1950s when life in Manila was clean and simple, and the only downturn for a young boy might be banishment to Room 13.

I believe that was already in our high school years. But I have no memory of it, and can only rely on the unapologetic recollections of someone like Bobby Muldong, SBC ES/HS ’56/’60, who’s out there in San Diego, California, still cherishing his bullyboy days.

From an account of those who were privileged to have joined him last Sunday, I understand that the “burpday boy” also claimed to know nothing of that mythical room, invoking his failing memory. We really should’ve been there to toggle that memory shtick, and maybe even drawn an admission that Nito Abad had also been a frequent guest in that parlor of discipline.

The way Nito a.k.a iNiot out there in Connecticut keeps sending Fr. Bena convivial correspondence cum checks, we don’t think he’s trying to replicate Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s polemical give-and-take across oceans with Fr. Pablo Pastells.  

In any case, the invite came weeks ago, so we can’t say we weren’t aware of the propitious day. Since our HS Class of 1960 became the Golden Jubilarians in February 2010, we had been looking forward to our next get-together to hail Fr. Bena on his 95th. 

In hardcopy and online did we receive the good tidings:

“The Benedictine Community of Our Lady of Montserrat Abbey, the San Beda College Alumni Association, the San Beda Law Alumni Association, and the San Beda College Alumni Foundation cordially invite you to the Solemn Mass in thanksgiving for the 95th Birth Anniversary and the 72nd Anniversary of the Ordination to the Priesthood of the Rev. Fr. Benigno Benabarre Vigo, O.S,B. Ph.D. at the Abbatial Church of Our Lady of Montserrat on Mendiola St., May 23, Sunday at 10 a.m. Reception follows at the St. Maur’s Hall lobby.”

I certainly looked forward to picking at lechon after Mass, for which attendance I reassured myself would not produce smoke from the seat of pagan pants — since the loveliest church in the world was exempt from such remonstrance over loss of faith.

Fr. Bena got in touch with the exalted RAVS, er, Hon. Atty. Rene A.V. Saguisag, from whom he retrieved our e-mail addy. He then asked for our postal address and sent a collection of booklets he had authored, which already total 35.

One signed copy was that of They Died As They had Lived (The lives and martyrdom of Frs. Santiago Pardo and Domingo Caballe and Bro. Eugenio Erausquin, former members of the Benedictine Community.). Due out this month are two more titles: Set Your Hearts Above (translation from Spanish to English of 34 religious articles, first published in Puerto Rico in 2004); and Sanctification Made Simple (an essay on how to become real saints without much difficulty).

Yet another, to be reissued as a second edition, we already wrote about over a year ago, the auto-bio From Shepherd of Goats to Pastor of Souls — an excerpt from which should explain his longevity. 

“Benigno is the Christian name I was given upon entering the novitiate as a Benedictine monk in 1931. That was the general custom of religious congregations at the time, for just like in baptism, the adoption of a new name meant the changing of life for the better.

“Actually, I was baptized Jose Pascual, the latter not being the family name, but my second baptismal name, since in Spain babies are given two Christian names. We also carry two last names: the first family name being our father’s first (hence, Benabarre), and the second the mother’s first family name from her father (Vigo. for me).

“When was I born? Nobody knows! My mother was absolutely sure she gave birth to me on May 17, 1915, the feast of St. Pasehal Bailon — thus my second Christian name, Pascual. However, my church and civil birth certificates state the 23rd of that month as my birth date. To me, mother was right.

“I am the fifth of seven children: four boys and three girls. One of the boys died a few months after birth. Five reached ages of over 85. The three eldest died by order of age — as it should be! — when they were over 85 years. The three surviving siblings are: Ramona (97 years old), Fermin (84), and myself, now 93.

“These ages are remarkable, because with the family being poor by Spanish standards, our nutrition during the crucial years of development was rather deficient. Perhaps this was compensated by the fact that we were living in the isolated village of Aler in the municipality of Benabarre, province of Huesca, Spain, near the Pyrenees Mountains separating Spain from France. Aler, about 200 kilometers from Our Lady of Lourdes, is situated on top of a 600-meter hill, surrounded by countryside, and very far from contaminating elements.”

We can’t help but marvel at the life story of this Spanish priest who has been most dear to us.

Retiring from academe and the Manila abbey of the Order of St. Benedict sometime in the 1990s, Fr. Benabarre returned to his mother country. But he must have missed the Philippines so much that he asked to be brought back, even at his ripe old age.

He tasked himself with being the Alumni Association moderator, in which capacity he still displayed his brilliant ideas — such as initiating a Bedan Plaza where red bricks generated funds from alumni who had their names, signatures and class years engraved on them, for stomping on by guffawing classmates.

Our class kicked off our Jubilee Year 2009-10 with the Fr. Benabarre Cup Golf Tournament, for which solicitation letter our class prez Lino Dionisio, who also became the prez of the alumni association, wrote: 

“Since those formative years, we have continued to recognize the good father as having successfully imbedded the teachings of St. Benedict and St. Bede deep within our Bedan character. He has become an institution... and the time has come for us to institutionalize the Fr. Benabarre Cup with a golf tournament as a fund-raiser — to raise a permanent fund to assist Grade School and High School teachers in their time of need — and as a permanent symbol of a man whom we all love and respect.”

Well, Lino was still airborne from the USA’s West Coast, together with Jun Diangco after their “apostolic” visits, so that they too were missing for Mass and lechon last Sunday.

My own excuse is that on the eve, it happened to be Bedan batchmate Arru Gallaga’s 67th burpday bash. And the Grey Goose vodka, Johnnie Walker Black, terrific camaraderie and late-night carousing by over 25 of us wrought havoc on my Circadian rhythm, so that once I got home from Alabang, precious sleep took me all the way to noon. Now I might have unconsciously determined to exempt myself from the Mass, but had really meant to catch up with the luncheon. If I still tried a quick Sunday drive that late, however, I still wouldn’t have made it for any crackling lechon skin. So, so sowie, Fr. BB.

Thanks to Bu Castro and Allen Mercado, not our batchmates but Bedan bros just the same, we received photos and notes on the affair.

“Bedan alumni from various batches attended the Holy Mass. Many of Fr. BB’s students shared anecdotes, testimonies and tributes about their most feared yet most revered principal and rector.”

Representatives from HS Classes 1955, 1958 and 1959 were among the oldest, with Class 1956 sending a large contingent. Our Class 1960 had seven stalwarts: Drs. Mon Arcadio and Boy Hilvano, Jun Lao, Jess Lindayag, Ding Reyes, Nito Licauco and Mariano Dajoyag. Also represented were Classes 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970 and 1972.

After blowing on his cakes, and before eating them, too, Fr. BB invited everybody to a bigger party five years from now, when he celebrates his 100th birthday. But not before intoning: “One disadvantage of old age — the longer you stay on earth, the shorter your time in Heaven.”

Animo! Padre Benigno!

A postscript: I recall that 25 ago, our class donated a bust of the martyred Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino to the SBC campus. Sculpted by Gerry Leonardia, it couldn’t be set in a public place on account of the antsiness of the times before Corazon C. Aquino became president. It was relegated to the library. Cory Aquino, together with some of her siblings, and with son Noynoy by her side, graced the unveiling.

When Lino and cohorts asked to see it again last year, the bust was missing! Well, it has since surfaced, after patient sleuthing. And maybe it has become appropriate to have it see the light of day, since Benignos are apparently in good season.